Happy - EP

-


Happy - EP

Album ∙ K-Pop ∙ 2024

JIN

In November 2024, five months after his exit from mandatory military service, singer Kim Seok-jin, aka JIN, became the last of BTS’s seven members to release a solo project. Happy is a six-track EP from BTS’s eldest, a tenor known for his smooth vocals and warm, sometimes goofy persona. As with many BTS tracks—both solo and group—the six songs on Happy are designed as sources of comfort for world-weary listeners looking for a “Dynamite”-level kick-start to, or a “Spring Day”-like reassurance in, their daily routines. “I’ll Be There,” a rockabilly pop-rock track that has JIN promising listeners he will always sing for them, falls into the former category, while the sweet ballad “I will come to you” veers closer to the hopeful yearning of the latter (“When the warm spring breeze blows/I’ll go to you”).

Notable collaborators on Happy include Gary Barlow, the lead singer and primary songwriter of English rock band Take That. Barlow co-produced and co-wrote lead single “Running Wild,” a pop-rock track reminiscent of JIN’s 2022 Coldplay collab “The Astronaut.” JIN’s K-pop colleague WENDY, a vocalist for Red Velvet, lent her voice to the duet “Heart on the Window,” while Taka and Toru of Japanese rock band ONE OK ROCK co-wrote “Falling.” Big Hit Music producer and frequent BTS collaborator Pdogg worked on four of the six tracks, weaving JIN’s solo album debut even more tightly into the broader BTS musical journey.

Listen on Apple Music

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

GNX

-
Image
GNX Album ∙ Hip-Hop/Rap ∙ 2024 Kendrick Lamar If there were any remaining doubts as to hip-hop’s MVP, consider the decision stamped: Kendrick Lamar officially won 2024. There were whispers that Compton’s finest was working on an album in the wake of his feud with Drake, a once-in-a-generation beef that kept jaws dropped for months. (Perhaps you’ve heard of a little song called “Not Like Us,” an immediate entry into the canon of all-time great diss tracks.) After a sold-out celebration at the Kia Forum, an armful of Grammy nods and streaming records, and the headlining slot at next year’s Super Bowl, Lamar ties up his biggest year yet with a bow with his sixth album,   GNX , the most legitimately surprising surprise drop since   BEYONCÉ   in 2013. Named for his beloved classic Buick,   GNX   finds Kendrick wielding a hatchet he’s by no means ready to bury, still channeling this summer’s cranked-to-11 energy. On “wacced out murals,” he’s riding around listening to...
Listen »

Trill Bill

-
Image
Trill Bill Album ∙ Hip-Hop/Rap ∙ 2024 Kodak Black Despite the rollercoaster that is the Florida rapper’s personal life, Kodak Black’s steady stream of new music never falters. Just a month after the release of a mixtape,   Dieuson Octave , which took its title from his birth name, arrives   Trill Bill , his eighth studio album. For a man still in his twenties with such a world-weary rasp it’s surprising to hear just how nimble his flow can be, with a knack for unpredictable wordplay reminiscent of mixtape-era Wayne. (Kudos if you saw it coming when he rhymes “Make my gat go bang” with “Kurt Cobain” on “Maybach Van.”) Surprising too are   Trill Bill ’s many tender moments—as he croons over sweet piano chords on “One Piece Left” (“I got one more piece of my heart left/And I’ve been saving it for you”), or recounts a meet-cute on “Dirty Revolver”: “She said, ‘You Haitian and a Gemini, boy, I already know you trouble, but LOL, text me.’”
Listen »